Peters, DeMaio battle over ‘moderate’ label

In one of the nation’s most closely watched congressional races, Democratic Rep. Scott Peters and Republican challenger Carl DeMaio each portray themselves as the true consensus candidate who can move past the partisan divide in Congress to best represent San Diegans.

That’s certainly not what they say about each other.

Throughout the summer, the Peters camp has hammered at DeMaio as divisive, the personification of Washington’s ills wrought by the uncompromising tea party. DeMaio’s says Peters represents Washington gridlock, is nothing more than a privileged politician who earlier helped bring about San Diego’s pension crisis and has done little in his freshman congressional term.

Peters on DeMaio: “He is trying to portray himself as a moderate and he’s not. The problem with the country right now — and in the Republican Party — is we’re locked up by the tea party. They’re hyper-political, hyper-partisan and hyper-idealogical and Carl would fit right in with that.”

DeMaio on Peters: “Scott is trying to deny any involvement in the disastrous decisions he made that put San Diego on the brink of bankruptcy. It matters because it goes to his priorities. He has gone back to Washington and faded into the woodwork.”

Welcome to the multi-million dollar, toss-up election where there’s no love lost between the candidates.

The salvos are expected to intensify this month as each candidate is armed with more than $2 million in campaign funds. Their ads won’t be the first — national interest groups have already hit the airwaves with attack ads.

Peters, a former San Diego City Council president, says DeMaio is using a broad brush on the pension issue, trying to paint him as solely responsible for a financial morass that has since been addressed with reforms (many pushed by DeMaio).

In 2012, incumbent Rep. Brian Bilbray also criticized Peters on the same subject but lost. President Barack Obama carried the 52nd Congressional District that year and Peters benefitted from the turnout for the incumbent chief executive.

“People didn’t buy it then, and they don’t buy it now,” Peters said of the pension argument.

DeMaio, a former mayoral candidate and council member, rejects the effort to put him in the tea party, pointing out that the far right had a candidate in the June primary in former Marine Kirk Jorgensen, who ran on a traditional family values, strong-defense and anti-Obama platform. “They didn’t support me in the primary and the extreme far right spent a lot against me,” DeMaio said.

Last week, the Peters camp began airing an ad that includes a part of DeMaio’s address to a tea party group when he ran for mayor in 2012. His remarks include calling the group the “conscience of the accountable government movement” and said if he won he would “owe you and our collective movement everything.”

Whether the pension and tea party themes continue in the six weeks remaining before mail balloting begins remains to be seen.

The 52nd is a largely well-educated, upscale, mostly coastal district that stretches from Poway to Coronado and is split nearly evenly among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Democrat Peters captured the lion’s share of the vote in the June primary, 42.3 percent to the Republican Party-backed DeMaio’s 35.2 percent, with two other Republicans on the ballot.

DeMaio has garnered numerous national headlines as one of a small handful of openly gay Republican congressional candidates running in November. He says he wants the GOP to move away from social issues, and that he represents the kind of moderate, reform-minded candidate Congress needs.

He’s offering a “Fix Congress First” platform that includes ending congressional pensions, limiting bills to a single subject and applying the Freedom of Information Act to Congress.

“I’m also proposing to start a ‘No Perks’ caucus,” DeMaio said. “Members would give up their own perks and privileges and commit to advancing reforms.”

Peters bristles at the notion of DeMaio as a moderate. He stresses his belief that DeMaio was a divisive member of the City Council who opposed budgets offered by the then mayor and fellow Republican Jerry Sanders and cast lone “no” votes on 102 times.

“The fact he voted ‘no’ on everything is standard tea party behavior,” said Peters. “We are getting in the way of his redefinition.”

DeMaio said he believe extreme elements in both parties are misguided.

“I am the gay, pro-choice, pro-reformer who has taken on his own party time and time again,” DeMaio said.

While DeMaio opposes the Senate-passed immigration bill that’s been bottled up in the House all year, Peters would vote for it. Peters wants to leave the bulk of Obamacare in place but fix its problems, while DeMaio says misguided mandates have made the situation worse.

Peters said the bottom line is that he’s the true moderate, pointing out the National Journal last year ranked him among the most independent Democrats in the House and that he’s crossed the aisle several times to vote with Republicans.

“That’s what voters in this district want,” he said.

San Diego political consultant John Dadian believes the election comes down to which man does the best job of getting voters out and appealing to the large swath of independents.

“It’s a slugfest that could go either way,” he said. “I don’t think linking Carl to the tea party is all that effective, and I also don’t think linking Scott to the pension crisis years ago is very effective. It’s going to come down to the economy and who does the best job of appealing to the large bloc of independents.”

Jorgensen, the man who ran third in the primary with nearly 20 percent of the vote, says both camps sought his endorsement. He’s not giving it, saying he disagrees with Peters on the issues and that DeMaio would help tilt the GOP too far to the left.

Peters said he’s been able to live the American dream and wants to stay in Congress to see some of the nation’s largest challenges resolved.

“That’s very important to me, and I’ll keep working until we fix Congress,” he said.

DeMaio, who championed San Diego’s pension overhaul, said he was able to lead reforms at City Hall and can do the same in Washington.

“I am fed up and frustrated with politicians continuing to sweep problems under the rug — public service is about true problem solving,” he said.

Mail ballots for the Nov. 4 general election start going to voters in early October.